*Overheard in the Chatterbox*
is this another one of those nodeshells that shoulda been left that way?
Oh geez, sure looks like it.
Well, it wasn't, but thats because
Everything needs to take a serious look at
itself. A little
self-parody and
irreverence is good, but if thats the only thing this
culture has, then
Everything2 is as shallow and self-abosrbed as all those Cheerleaders and Jocks we (on the most part) claim to
hate(Well, ok, a lot of the guys don't
hate the
cheerleaders, but you know what I mean). First, let's take a look at your average
joe blow node, say, for example,
hackers, a term many people here use to describe
themselves.
I quote, so you can save the time of clicking:
(person) by
aolwatch
Hackers originally meant coders, but clueless reporters broadened the term to mean people who break into under-protected systems like AOL.
Now, who thought that was
funny? *dead silence*
Umm, ok, maybe factual? Oh wait, no it's not. It's actually rather opinionated, but that's ok as long as it's original... which it isn't. Oops. It doesn't make almost anyone stop and think, it doesn't spark conversation (well, maybe if you desperate, but that is usually just griping), and it doesn't help anyone doing, say, a
report on hackers, like giving the
history of hacking or
notable hackers. And this is what
everything2 is made of? Where we can't even decently talk about who we
are? I seriously mean no offense to
aolwatch, if he/she is reading this, because it is very common. I do it all the time too, and so do you. Yet what was that write-ups
score? A 2. And there were no objective
nodes on hacker at either point, and several vague, conflicting
definitions of the word. Voting these up is
sado masochistic, because it only gives us
self confidence when we write
chicken shit. These examples are common enough, but worse is the
bitter
cloth in which we enshroud ourselves, of settling for this mediocracy of
ideas, which, although never stated here, is the
essence of a hacker. Our best writing often talk about this, I know my most popular ones sure do:
The Day the EDB ate himself, about an apparent
glitch in the system. People loved it! My second most popular surely must touch on
something more profound... no, never mind, it's the frickin'
Everything Mailing Address Registry, where I don't even put my address, only say a
slightly humorous comment. My low scores? Yes, some of them deserve what they got, or lower. But one of them spoke out on the obsession with
sex that was rampant on
everything2 for while... (see
Everything Theory 69). Admittedly, it's not
decent and probably should have been
downvoted. I've got xp coming out the
bagoozle anyways. The point is, nobody apparently cared if
everything was decaying. Factual nodes, too, also often get the shaft, while
poorly done book reviews will get upvoted, see almost any major author, and most will be
one sided and simply
mad rants. You've heard it all before, so now I will leave you with the
whip and cuffs and one question:
Do you enjoy beating yourself, or would you rather use your power for a positive end? (Corny Music Comes in bringing a spirit of optimism and hope)